But the Distressed Communities Index, published by a Washington-based non-profit called Economic Innovation Group (EIG), adds some startling new detail and localised specificity to the widening and persistent gap between the country’s rich and poor, the worst of any “advanced” economy.

The US economy has, on paper, been recovering from the Great Recession since the summer of 2009. Recently, growth has hovered around 2% per year, and the unemployment rate has fallen to just 4.4%.

“The consequences extend far beyond the individual communities being left behind. The further we go down the path of geographically exclusive growth, the more we limit our nation’s economic potential as a whole — and the more fractured our society risks becoming in the process.”

The richest one-fifth of US zip codes were the “unambiguous drivers” of the recovery, the report found; 88% of them saw job growth and 85% had rising numbers of business establishments from 2011 to 2015.

“Outside of the upper echelon, however, growth rapidly becomes less pervasive,” EIG adds. “Only three out of every four comfortable zip codes saw job growth over the period, and the number of business establishments rose in only two out of every three zip codes in this second best-performing tier.”

For the poorest Americans, “stagnation and decline were the rule, not the exception.”

Just two of five distressed zip codes saw any job growth over the five years of recovery, and only about one in five saw the number of business establishments rise.

More than half (55%) of distressed zip codes experienced net declines in both jobs and business establishments over the 2011-2015 recovery period, compared to fewer than one quarter of mid-tier zip codes and a mere 3% of prosperous zip codes.

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